


The Tuesday After Memorial Day Weekend

by serendipityxxi



Series: Summer After The Troubles [1]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M, Holiday Weekend, M/M, Multi, Storms, Surfing, beach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 18:11:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11041542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: It’s a good day for the beach, warm and windy with scattered clouds for shade. They break open the cooler and breakfast on ham and cheese scones that Duke made at some point. Nathan’s not sure when he had the time; it’s been a busy week with the Memorial Day weekend tourists. Audrey and Nathan, too, had been kept hopping with the tourists at the PD too: Idiots who wanted to play their music at max volume at 2 a.m., dumbass college kids who thought they were so daring stealing lobsters out of the lobster traps. It had taken Nathan thirty minutes to talk Johnson Haskell out of booby trapping his new set of traps. On Sunday Parker had issued a kid a ticket for jaywalking after he’d been rude to Rosemary. Audrey took her cupcakes very seriously. Nathan couldn’t even complain, though, it had been such a satisfyingly normal weekend.It had been Duke’s idea to take the day when he realized that for once their schedules lined up and they were all three off the Tuesday after the holiday.So here they are.





	The Tuesday After Memorial Day Weekend

**Author's Note:**

> So many thanks to my beta readers and hand-holders without whom this fic would definitely not exist and would absolutely have 90% less semicolons. I swear I'm trying, Erin! :)

 

====

Duke doesn’t enjoy waking up early but he enjoys early mornings--there’s something hopeful about watching the night fade into day. There are few places he enjoys watching that show more than on his surfboard. He likes the feel of early mornings, a day’s worth of possibilities ready to be unfurled. The world is quiet, waiting. The water is still cool at this hour of the morning, but Duke has his wetsuit and the chill is worth it. The sun is stretching out bright fingers over the water. Soon the light will be dazzling, sparking off the water when the sun rises a little more. For now the waves are a uniform dark blue as they ripple and flow.

On his right, Audrey sits on her own board, wet hair slicked back from her face. With her hair darkened by the water and plastered to her head, Duke expects to be reminded of Mara in that cramped old cabin, but he never is. There is so much light and life and warmth in Audrey’s eyes; he could never mistake her gaze for Mara’s cold calculating stare. Audrey Parker cares.

Audrey’s small face is pensive as she sits, learning the rhythm of this patch of ocean. Duke had been surprised at how much she enjoyed surfing when he first started teaching them. So much of it is sitting quietly and learning the waves, but Audrey Parker has always been good at reading cues and listening to her gut.

Nathan is stretched out on a towel on the shore, boardshorts covered in sand, probably already dozing off again. He’d done well in the first few lessons in the white water near the shore, but once out past the breakers he’d turned a distinctive shade of green. Duke had no idea you could even get seasick on a surfboard-- but apparently Nathan could. They’d tried to leave him behind this morning, but he’d rolled out of bed and trailed them like a puppy. Duke can’t even pretend he doesn’t feel flattered that Nathan would give up the warm comfort of their bed on an early morning to wait for them to finish surfing.

Nathan will stake out their spot on the beach and nap while Audrey and Duke get their surf on. They’d hauled out the works, beach umbrella, cooler full of breakfast, the portable grill for fixing lunch and Duke’s vintage polaroid camera. They’d even rented three beach chairs on the way down. The kids at the dive shop are always out at the merest hint of dawn. Nathan had zipped their wetsuits for them and Duke and Audrey had slathered Nathan in sunblock before taking off into the surf, leaving him all but boneless, spread face down on top of the beach towel across his chair.

“This is the one,” Duke murmurs to Audrey as the swell builds. They start paddling into the surge. Duke loves the resistance of the water, the stretch in his muscles as he paddles. He’s up and on his feet in one smooth move, Audrey is almost as quick but not quite as smooth. She’d laughed at his yoga once, but when they’d started surfing she’d soon discovered how much control it gave him over his body. She and Nathan joined him on the mat more regularly after that. Audrey often started strong and ended shaky, she had yet to make it all the way back into the shore standing on her surfboard. It was going to happen one of these days though, Duke is sure of it.

The wave crests, and all thoughts are pushed out of Duke’s mind except for the joy of riding the water. With the wind in his face, the speed and the spray, it feels like flying. Duke swerves his board, riding the current with an eye out for Audrey, but she’s doing just fine on her own, her feet planted just right, her body adjusting for balance like he’d taught her. Duke feels a thrill of pride--she’s going to stay up through this whole ride! They hurtle toward the shore on wings of salt and exhilaration.

On the beach, Nathan is on his feet cheering for their girl as she brings it home. She throws herself off her board with a wild shriek of elation as she reaches the shallows. She surfaces still shouting, launching herself at Duke so that he suddenly has his arms full of wet, exhilarated Audrey Parker. She kisses him soundly, tasting of the sea, and pulls back to laugh in delight and self-satisfaction, her eyes and hair and cheeks sparkling in the early morning light. Duke can do nothing but kiss her again, savoring that happy sound against his mouth.

And then Nathan is there, lifting Audrey up and spinning her around so that her board, trailing by the leash on her ankle, almost clocks Duke. He yelps and they turn and laugh and laugh.

====

When Audrey and Duke return to the waves, Nathan resettles himself on his chair in the shade of the red umbrella. A shiver courses down his spine from the wind off the water, and Nathan secretly relishes each and every goosebump that appears on his body. He gives himself over to the shudder and then reaches for Duke’s towel, hung on the chair to the left of his. He dries off quickly and efficiently. The terry cloth is soft and absorbent;no salt-roughened, bleach-stained towels now that Duke’s a grownup. This thing probably has a higher thread count than all the sheets Nathan’s bought in his life put together.

Nathan rolls it up and sticks it behind his head for a pillow and lays back on the chair, closes his eyes and concentrates on five things he can feel. It’s a grounding exercise, one of the few the Council-provided shrink suggested that’s actually useful. He doesn’t think she’d approve of him digging the edge of his shield into his palm as one of the things he usually feels, but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt his job. Honestly, Nathan finds himself doing the grounding just because he enjoys it sometimes. It’s good to feel like he’s really inside his skin.

He inhales deeply feeling the cool air rushing through his nostrils, his ribs expanding, the plastic slats of the chair digging subtly into his back but not uncomfortably so. He kicks a leg over the side and drags his heel over the sand, the gritty texture like an explosion to his synapses. He curls his toes into the sand, digging down where it’s still cool and damp from the night. He twitches, rubbing his toes together so the sand scrapes against the sensitive skin between them. Nathan can feel his heart speeding up and his breathing coming faster, telling him he’s approaching too much. He kicks his foot free, wiggling it so most of the sand falls off, he can feel every flex and bend in his ankle, the curl and stretch of his toes, the long tendon in the back of his calf pulling taut, and it is a miracle every time.

With his eyes closed and the waves a soft sussuration in the background, the wind whispering through the beach grasses, Nathan feels himself drifting to sleep like a pebble sinking layer by layer beneath the sea. It’s funny, last night had been a good night for all of them -- no one woke up screaming at least. There were times during the Troubles when he couldn’t sleep more than a few hours at a stretch. Now he’s well rested and still can’t resist this nap. _Must be getting soft_ is his second to last thought before sleep claims him, followed immediately by a mental middle finger at the Chief in his head. _Wasn’t being hard that saved the town._

A cool spray of water wakes him before he’s baked lobster red by the sun that has shifted under his umbrella. He opens his eyes to find Duke shaking his head like a dog and gets a second spray.

“Got a problem, Fido?” Nathan drawls, shifting his head, sinking it more comfortably into his makeshift pillow with a smirk.

“What might give you that idea, Sticky Fingers?” Duke replies, moving to loom over Nathan. It’s not very effective since he has to stoop to avoid whacking his head on the umbrella.

Audrey squeezes between Duke and the umbrella pole to squish herself onto Nathan’s chair, her wetsuit immediately soaking his side, her thigh pressed snugly against him. Her grinning face fills his vision before she’s kissing him, loud and smacking, there and gone almost before he can register it. Her hair sprinkles his face as she turns her head to look at Duke.

“First!” she declares, satisfied and playful. It makes Nathan’s heart swell to hear the contentment in her voice.

Duke laughs and shakes his head ruefully, the sun catching the water in the ends of his hair and shining brilliantly through them. His smile is fond, warmer than the light, and Nathan can feel his own lips tipping up to mirror it.

“I suppose I’ll have to settle for sloppy seconds,” Duke grumps with a very put upon sigh.

“Pretty sure there’s an insult in there,” Nathan grouses in return but he leans up to meet Duke’s kiss. His lips are cool, chapped and salty from the water. Nathan can feel the mischief in them. He pulls away to find Duke has snagged the towel out from under his head! He huffs a laugh through his nose as Duke flicks it out with a dramatic flourish, the Jolly Roger printed on it waving at him jauntily before Duke uses it to dry his hair.

It’s a good day for the beach, warm and windy with scattered clouds for shade. They break open the cooler and breakfast on ham and cheese scones. Duke made them at some point. Nathan’s not sure when he had the time; it’s been a busy week with the Memorial Day weekend tourists. Audrey and Nathan, too, had been kept hopping with the tourists at the PD: Idiots who wanted to play their music at max volume at 2 a.m., dumbass college kids who thought they were _so daring_ stealing lobsters out of the lobster traps. It had taken Nathan thirty minutes to talk Johnson Haskell out of booby trapping his new set of traps. On Sunday Parker had issued a kid a ticket for jaywalking after he’d been rude to Rosemary. Audrey took her cupcakes very seriously. Nathan couldn’t even complain, though, it had been such a satisfyingly _normal_ weekend.

It had been Duke’s idea to take the day when he realized that for once their schedules lined up and they were all three off the Tuesday after the holiday.

So here they are.

“Feel like a little kid playing hooky,” he confesses to Audrey while Duke is trekking up the beach back to the truck. Breakfast mimosas are apparently a thing every beach day is in need of, even if you forget the glasses.

“Why?” she asks, squinting at him in the bright morning sun.

Nathan lets a slow smile stretch his cheeks. “Used to run wild here with Duke when we were kids.”

Audrey looks delighted at the thought, as he expected she would.  “You did?” she asks, shoving at his shoulder. Her touch isn’t the only thing he can feel anymore but it still lights up his nerves like fireworks.

“Yup,” Nathan affirms, a little embarrassed he’d told her now. Not sure what to say. They’d hunted treasure and played pirates all along the shore and up into the dunes as kids, ditched the last class of the day for most of May their freshman year and hid out on the beach so the Chief wouldn’t know. “Had our first beer here, sophomore summer. Duke convinced me to crash a senior party. Geoff’s friend gave us the beer,” Nathan smiles at the memory.

“Aww, Nathan Wuornos , you little delinquent,” Audrey teases.

Nathan ducks his head but knocks her shoulder with his own. The sunblock on her skin is greasy and they slide easily against each other. It’s nice.

“And now you roust kids out here having their first beers and so the earth turns,” Audrey intones, blue eyes twinkling in that mischievous way he’s so fond of.

Nathan rolls his eyes and then his brow furrows. “Probably wasn’t Duke’s first beer now that I think about it,” he glares at their partner, returning victorious, glasses in hand.

Duke coughs apologetically.

“You were so excited…” Duke explains. He turns to Audrey, “I knew because he put five whole words together. In the same sentence!” Duke’s brows are up, expression plainly teasing in the way that used to put Nathan’s teeth on edge. It doesn’t bother him anymore. They’re not laughing _at_ him, he knows. He’s the subject of the joke, not the butt of it.

He grumbles and steals the champagne out of Duke’s grasp just because it’s what they expect, but deep down he’s kind of amused himself and a little bit grateful to fifteen-year-old Duke.

He twists the wire off the cork while Audrey and Duke go on bantering. So much of the time they’d spent together as teens, Nathan had felt like he’d been struggling to keep up with Duke in terms of ‘being cool’ or whatever.  Duke had hit his growth spurt in the middle of sophomore year, Nathan hadn’t hit his til junior year. Duke had gotten a job for the summer down at the docks and started developing real muscles. Geoff, a senior, had invited Duke to that party.

Nathan had felt like a skinny, short tagalong who wasn’t supposed to be there for a good part of the night. He hadn’t realized his friend had noticed or thought that he’d even care enough to make up a lie like that.

Duke snatches the champagne back, pops the cork himself and winks at Nathan, swallowing the overflow as fast as he can. It makes Nathan grin, remembering something else from that night.

“Least I wasn’t the one singing drunken love songs to the moon that night,” he divulges to Audrey, letting smugness color his tone.

Duke glances up from pouring the champagne to squawk in outrage. “You forget I have an abundance of drunk Nathan stories to choose from in retaliation,” he says as he wags the glass at Nathan threateningly before handing it to him. Duke pours the rest of the glass full of orange juice, completing the mimosa while Nathan opens his mouth to reply and then thinks better of it with a shake of his head. Nathan doesn’t fail to notice he gets the first glass, or miss the way Duke’s fingers overlap his on the stem for a moment.

“Besides she was a beautiful moon,” Duke adds, handing Audrey her own glass with a flourish.

“I’m sure she was,” Audrey agrees very seriously, but her dimples are showing. She tips her glass at them before drinking.

Nathan settles back in his chair and sips his mimosa, squinting out over the sand and into the glint of light on the waves. He hasn’t let himself think of those days in a long, long time. Feels nice to look back, to give himself the luxury of those happy memories. He’d pushed them away for so long out of mistrust and fear. He can almost see the two of them, all skinny legs and bony shoulder blades, turning brown under the summer sun.

====

Audrey isn’t sure she likes this ‘beach day’ thing. Surfing early in the morning before work with Duke is one thing (and really only a summer thing because let’s be real--Haven in any other season now that the weather’s untroubled is _definitely_ not an option.) Spending the entire day just lazing about, though? It’s not even noon yet and she’s getting itchy.

Duke cracks an eye at her. He isn’t napping like Nathan is, but it’s a judgemental look nevertheless, one that says his zen is being ruined by her ‘busy vibes’ even though she hasn’t even budged!

He makes a face at her that clearly says _you don’t look like you’re relaxing_.

Audrey opens her eyes wide and settles her shoulders back against the chair more firmly. _I’m relaxed,_ the gestures imply.

Duke frowns and Audrey closes her eyes, ignoring him.

She opens them a moment later when something lands in her lap-- a cheesy vampire romance novel complete with a musclebound hero on the cover who puts even Dwight to shame.

She glances up and meets Duke’s fond eyes. “Figured you would’ve gotten antsy thirty minutes ago,” he teases.

Audrey laughs, oddly touched that Duke would think to bring a book for her, one he definitely did not have in his own personal library; he must have gone into a store and specifically purchased it for her at some point. It’s not a new book either; it’s well worn, a couple dog eared pages. Audrey likes her books to have history--the coffee stains, and scribbles in the margins add character.

“Maybe you can make it next month’s book at book club,” Duke adds slyly, erasing all her warm fuzzy feelings about him buying her just the kind of book she’d like.

She schools her features into a carefully neutral look and agrees, “Maybe.”

Book Club is code for her cold case habit that she’s talked Gloria and Vickie and a few others into helping with. It had originally started as an actual book club but by the second month Gloria had suggested a true crime book and things had spiraled from there. Audrey refuses to acknowledge that it’s no longer a book club to Nathan or Duke, and they let her pretend she does something besides work.

Audrey opens the book, pointedly tuning out Duke. From the corner of her eye, she sees him settle back into his chair.

The book is actually pretty good, but before she’s even halfway through her eyelids are heavy. Nathan is dozing and Duke’s eyes are closed, though Audrey knows he’s not asleep. He never gets comfortable enough when they’re not at home to really sleep. He’s also the lightest sleeper of the three of them, an impressive feat considering Nathan Everything-Is-Touching-Me-Now Wuornos is his competition.

Audrey thinks again that that’s probably something they should be working on with him, it can’t be healthy sleeping in snatches and – her eyes slip closed.

She opens them a moment later when something wet, soggy and slimy lands lightly in her lap.

“Sorry,” Claire calls, even as twenty pounds of equally soggy but entirely excited Scottish terrier scrabbles its way onto her lap in pursuit of the old green tennis ball.

“Pavlov!” Audrey greets the dog, scratching his ears and his belly and every frantic inch between, as he wiggles and pants and then rights himself with a mighty heave sitting impatiently waiting for her to throw the ball again. Pavlov’s a rescue; the Haven ASPCA had been overwhelmed in the wake of the fog wall. They never figured out who Pavlov originally belonged to, but he loves Claire with abandon, and also belly rubs and fetch. He barks and Nathan cracks an eye now.

Audrey leaves her lazy boys to go play fetch and chat with Claire as they wander down the beach. She catches Duke’s bemused look before she goes. Relaxing is overrated anyway.

Walking down the beach with Pavlov is a treat. The dog is a bundle of curious energy, running back and forth between them, sniffing suspicious shells, barking at the waves. Claire had suggested that Audrey get a rescue of her own now that there’s no countdown in her life, but she and Duke and Nathan are still working on balancing themselves and each other. Today’s a good day--but not every day is. There are still days when Nathan is angry and snappish, full of self-loathing and guilt, days when Duke will leave a note and disappear for hours. She and Nathan get antsy on those days, but he needs the time to himself and they do their best to reassure each other and give him the space he needs. Audrey has her own bad days, where she creates task after task for herself to accomplish so she knows she’s needed still.

But today is a good day. Audrey turns her face up into the sun and relishes the warmth on her cheekbones. A wave darts up to lap over their toes, setting her and Claire dancing higher up the beach with shrieks over how cold the water is. Pavlov enjoys the noise, adding his yips to the chorus. A seagull swoops down to steal the fries from a teenager’s hand, a radio plays somewhere further off down the beach. All around the residents of Haven are enjoying the start of summer. There are no calamities--no one is walking out of the ocean with gills, the beach is not shaking itself apart because of Carol Sullivan’s earthquake Trouble.

Today is a good day.

It is also a dog kind of day. After Audrey leaves Claire and Pavlov on a blanket next to Dwight, she makes it back to the umbrella to find Bill and Meg McShaw, their sixteen month old daughter Katie and the newest addition to their family, a Dalmatian puppy.

“What, are you guys moving to the beach?” Audrey teases. They’re loaded down with beach chairs and an umbrella, a cooler, a portable playpen. But Audrey really only has eyes for the puppy, who yaps and dances onto her hind legs.

Audrey drops to her knees to receive puppy kisses with glee. Hey, she doesn’t have one of her own, she’s going to shamelessly take advantage of all the puppy time she can get.

“What’s her name?” she asks, in between enthusiastic licks and belly rubs.

“Lady MacBeth,” Meg answers with an eye roll.

Before Audrey can even ask why, Nathan supplies “Out, damned spot, out.”

Audrey cracks up laughing. “It’s a perfect name,” she assures Bill, who looks pretty smug himself.

Bill and Meg set up camp next door and before she knows it, Nathan has been charmed into building sand castles with the baby. He coos over the kid like she’s a stack of unlimited search warrants.  Audrey isn’t exactly uncomfortable--they’re not on duty--but she’s a little uneasy. They haven’t talked kids. At all. She isn’t sure she’d be up for a conversation like that in a year, far less right now.

She catches Duke watching Nathan, his eyes wistful and wary. She wonders if he’s thinking about Jean. They’ve talked about meeting her now that the Troubles are over. She and Nathan aren’t pushing Duke about it though. He notices her gaze and gives her a smile that is so clearly fake she ought to arrest him for it, then excuses himself to go collect the portable grill so they can get lunch going.

====

Duke is fine, or so he tells himself as he drags his feet back to the truck. He just. Needed a minute. He loves Bill and Meg, but seeing them be such a traditional family, seeing Nathan with Katie…it makes him wonder if he’s keeping Nathan and Audrey from that. Mentally, he knows he’s not; they’ve made it very clear they are not a couple with a boyfriend, they are all three of them equal partners in this relationship. They show him in dozens of ways every day how much they want him. Still, Duke can’t help but think how much easier it would be on them if they had a normal relationship. Duke would give them up in a heartbeat if it meant they’d be happier, had tried a time or two early on, but they keep coming back to him, keep dragging him back to them. So he stays and lets every early morning surf lesson, every late night drink, every text and spontaneous touch convince him a little more  that the small voice inside his head that says he’s complicating things is wrong.

He gets back to find Audrey and Nathan are competing at building sand castles. Duke rolls his eyes. There is absolutely nothing they won’t make into a contest. As soon as she catches sight of him Audrey fixes him with a look and he shakes his head mutely. He’s fine. Really. Nathan claps a sandy hand on his calf as he passes, the gesture thoughtless and full of affection. Duke squeezes his warm, bare shoulder in return.

“Need help setting it up?” Nathan volunteers but Duke shakes his head.

“I’ve got this, you kick our girl’s ass.”

“Hey!” Audrey protests.

“You’re from Ohio! Nathan’s been building castles for thirty years! I know who my money’s on,” he teases. Nathan has in fact made a lot of castles. Duke knows because he kicked over a lot of them. He was a little shit back then and would take Nathan’s attention in any way he could get it.

Audrey grumbles and goes back to carefully mixing water from a disposable cup into her sand. She’s got a great eye for structural stability. Her castle is almost twice as tall as Nathan’s.

Duke gets the coals going and Bill offers him a beer as they settle in to wait for the coals to catch enough to cook on. Lady flops herself between their feet, tail thumping sadly. Audrey and Nathan are too engrossed in their castle building efforts to play with the puppy. Katie and Meg aren’t even watching anymore, but the two of them are still building like there’s a cash prize awaiting them.

Duke laughs and tosses the ball for the dog. He’d wanted to for Pavlov, but he and Claire are more acquaintances than friends; it had felt like overstepping. Bill and Meg are family though, and he and Lady need to get to know each other if they’re going to be related. They make it through five rounds of fetch before Lady gets too excited and plows right through Audrey’s and then Nathan’s castles in her excitement to return the ball to Duke.

Duke freezes as the two turn matching glares on him.

They approach as one and Duke holds up his hands in surrender, to no avail. The beach chair collapses under the weight of all three of them. Lady joins the fray, barking excitedly, pleased that the humans are wrestling.

The afternoon passes; clouds blossom and flit across the blue silk sky. They make burgers on the grill. There’s potato salad from the rebuilt Gull’s kitchens, iced tea, and Gloria’s barbeque sauce, which she refuses to give Duke the recipe for. Dwight and Claire and Pavlov stop by and mooch food off of them. Audrey and Bill go off and return with Benjy’s ice cream bars for everyone.

Katie stretches out for an after lunch nap, sandy diapered butt sticking up in the air. Bill looks like he’s about ready to join her.

“Do you surf?” Claire asks Meg, lazy and content in the patch of shade she’s commandeered. Duke knows Claire does; he hadn’t missed the wet suit she’d been wearing earlier. It makes him like her a little more; he’s no less wary though, even if she’s no longer Audrey’s shrink. She’s way too perceptive. As if Audrey isn’t bad enough.

“No, those aren’t ours,” Meg nods to the surfboards that probably sparked Claire’s question.

“They’re Duke’s and Audrey’s,” Nathan confirms.

“You don’t surf?” Meg asks, surprise on her face, but before Duke can step in, Bill sits up.

“Do you still get seasick?” Bill asks Nathan, and Duke knows where this is going. Hopefully Nathan has a better sense of humor about this story now that they’re no longer in high school.

“Only on certain kinds of crafts,” Nathan agrees carefully.

“Like ferry boats?” Bill grins. Duke ducks his head to hide his grin.

“Ferry boats?” Audrey asks, interest clearly piqued.

Nathan groans and Bill’s face lights up. Duke covers his mouth to hide his grin, but Meg catches the gesture and her eyebrows go up in wicked anticipation.

“They never told you this story?” Bill takes a seat in front of Audrey, clearly settling in to tell the tale.

“They have not!” Audrey agrees, gleeful at their reactions.

Nathan buries his face in his hands. “We don’t have to tell her this story,” he complains into his fingers.

“Of course we do,” Audrey disagrees.

“There you have it lads, the Missus has spoken. I gotta tell the story now,” Bill grins.

Duke pats Nathan’s shoulder in consolation. Nathan raises his head and scowls at Duke but there’s no heat behind it, so Duke knocks his shoulder into Nathan’s. Nathan knocks his back with a begrudging smile as Bill starts the story.

“When we were in high school, we took a field trip out to Kick Em Jenny Neck to study tide pools or something. We had the most obnoxious biology teacher, she was young and new and thought she had to keep everyone under her thumb. What was her name?”

“Ms. McClusky,” Nathan tells him, his expression one of great suffering. Duke figures he can’t be too mad though or he wouldn’t be helping.

“Right! McClusky! Wow! We hated her,” Bill shakes his head at old memories.

Duke nods. He really _had_ hated the woman. She was always making mistakes in what she taught them, but when Hannah Driscoll corrected her one time she put her in detention. Duke is amazed he remembers all this so clearly. High School feels like it was at least three lifetimes ago.

“We might have skipped the field trip,” Bill continues, “but Duke had gotten us all in trouble earlier that month-”

“I object to that slight on my character,” Duke complains, “I got no one in trouble. I simply proposed an adventure, I twisted no arms.” He spreads his hands out wide to display his innocence.

None of the listeners believe him; even Dwight is grinning.

“You’d’ve been in twice as much trouble if I hadn’t come along,” Nathan grouses.

Duke smiles, remembering how Nathan had pulled the Son of the Chief, Couldn’t Possibly Be Doing Anything Bad card on Vice Principal Bachman. It had been very useful back in the day.

“Anyway!” Bill brought the story back on track, “it was a rough day and Nathan was green around the gills almost from the time we boarded.”

“Was fine once we got off the damn boat,” Nathan interjects, face sour.

“That’s true.” Bill agrees amiably.

“I get sea sick too,” Meg tells him sympathetically.

Audrey leans over from her chair and pat’s Nathan’s knee absently but her eyes are focused on Bill, enjoying the tale.

“So Duke and I tried to keep him distracted, telling him stories, goofing around. Man I was sure he was going to blow chunks. He wasn’t the only one. You could hear people hurling every now and then. Not to mention the boat was old and smelled moldy and Nathan’s always had that sensitive nose y’know, but he made it! Both ways! It took us almost twice as long to offload when we got home than it did for us to get on board though, because that biology teacher insisted on calling roll when we got to the mainland.”

“Which was a fine time to check that she had everybody and not, y’know, when we were leaving the island,” Duke points out now, as he had then.

Meg makes a sympathetic face. She hadn’t gone to the same high school. Dwight might have, but Duke doesn’t remember him and he’s pretty sure he would have remembered a guy Dwight’s size. Claire is much too young even if she had gone to their school.

“So we’re all waiting for her to hunt up Blair Channing and Todd Cooper, from wherever they were off sucking face,” Bill continues, “when Nathan’s stomach gives up the ghost.

“He turned green as grass, but we were already on the gangplank, couldn’t go back on the ship, we couldn’t get off. Duke and I are freaking out, trying to find him somewhere to heave but there’s not even a trashcan around. That’s when Duke spotted it.” Bill pauses for effect, the ham. “There was a box at the bottom of the ramp. It looked like a box someone had put there for garbage. I mean why else would there be a box at the bottom of the ramp?”

“Why do I get the feeling this was not a box for trash?” Audrey asks, eyes dancing merrily in amusement.

“Guess that’s why you get paid the big bucks, Detective Parker,” Nathan says voice dry as dust, but Duke can feel him fighting off a laugh at the memory.

“So we grab Nathan under the arms and practically haul him over there and he heaves. Oh man,” Bill shook his head, “it was gross.”

“Thanks.”

“So we get back in line just as the teacher gets back with the lovebirds and we’re all gratefully fleeing the boat when it happens. Mrs. McClusky gets to the box and without looking in it, closes the flap and picks it up. We all froze and I don’t know about these two, but I was just hoping desperately that she was taking it to the nearest trash can to toss it in there but no. She took the box back to her car! Put it in her trunk!”

Audrey is howling in amusement by this time, even Nathan and Duke are holding back grins.

“What happened when she got home?” Audrey wants to know.

“We don’t know,” Duke shakes his head.

“What?” Audrey demands.

“She never said anything,” Nathan confirms.

“We went to school the next Monday expecting to be clobbered, everyone had seen us, but she never mentioned it again.”

“She also requested a transfer at the end of the semester,” Bill points out helpfully and cracks the group up again.

The rest of the afternoon passes in much the same way. They trade stories from their past, and Bill is great about getting people to talk. He’s a good guy, genuinely good, and he’s got a way about him that makes people relax. He gets Dwight to tell them a couple ranger stories. Duke is never going to get the image out of his head of six big, hulking dudes, who he imagines as Dwight clones, getting into their regulation beds under Spongebob and Dora the Explorer bed sheets. Even Claire, who usually listens more than she talks – she tells them about writing the advice column for her high school newspaper, _The Sun-Banner_ , under the alias Tess Buchanan. A lot of the problems people wrote to her about were hilarious and Claire was brutal. Duke finds himself cracking up at her stories, and he can’t help liking her a little better.

Baby Katie wakes up crying and simply won’t be consoled without her stuffed tiger, which seems to have been left at home. Meg pushes Katie onto Dwight so she can fold up the portable crib. Duke watches the big man swallow hard, his eyes going soft and sad as he jiggles the baby in hopes of getting her to stop crying. Duke wants to say something, but he can’t bring himself to. Not with so many eyes. He doesn’t have the right to. Not when Jean is alive and well somewhere even if Duke never sees her. he doesn’t have the right to.

 _Today is not a day for maudlin thoughts,_ Duke reminds himself. Instead he pushes off of Nathan’s lounge chair and helps Bill and Meg haul their three tons of stuff back to the car. He doesn’t even know what half of the baby things are. _It’s probably for the best Jean isn’t with me,_ he decides. He doesn’t think about how Nathan would probably know what all the baby things are, or about how Audrey would be so endearingly flabbergasted by a baby.

====

When he turns from watching Duke walk the McShaws to the parking lot, Nathan finds a storm has started rolling in across the mouth of the bay. He keeps one ear on the conversation still going around him, but his attention is focused on the weather. The wind has picked up and the scent of rain is a faint copper tang on the breeze. Layer after layer of puffy grey and purple clouds bloom swiftly against the blue sky, blotting it out piece by piece. The storm blossoms darkest slate and palest ash grey like the charcoal in their grill, indigo and violet as bruises in some places, all roiling and climbing higher and higher.

In no time it seems, the horizon is overtaken with clouds. Dwight and Claire, too, notice when the sky starts to go dark and leave to go gather their things. The whole beach starts to pack up as the wind comes whistling in over the waves, wet with rain to come. Audrey takes one look at him and smiles, soft and fond. Nathan blushes, even though she doesn’t tease him, just stands to pack away the things they want to keep dry. He helps, towels going in one waterproof bag, the lid of the grill - warm still, even hours after they put the fire out – gets shut.

By the time their preparations are done, the ocean has turned a gunmetal blue, the water turning wilder as the storm closes in, the waves gaining new heights before crashing against the shore in sprays of white foam. Nathan shudders at the thought of Parker or Duke surfing this water. Audrey hands Nathan his t shirt, small defense against the sudden chill in the air ,but he shrugs it on before settling into the sand. He digs his toes in, the dry, smooth, grit of it sliding along his soles. He inhales and feels his chest expand with the salty air, closes his eyes and feels the cool, wet kiss of the wind brush across his eyelids and cheekbones.

Parker settles next to him, he can tell without opening his eyes. She’s a slight, warm weight against his side. The wind whips the ends of her hair against his neck, small stinging sensations; the brush of her shoulder through the cotton of his tee is warm though. Nathan can feel the small smile that stretches his lips, affection coursing through him as warm as the brush of her arm. She could call him crazy, she could go back to the truck; instead she’s sitting here with him, waiting for the storm to break.

When Nathan opens his eyes again, the light is different, greener somehow. Everything seems sharper; he can see individual branches dancing on the trees on the distant cliffs, the crisp, snapping lines of the red umbrella as it ripples in the wind. The air is charged with negative ions that feel like possibility to Nathan. The build up to storms have always felt like that, like something huge is coming, something that could change his world.

In some ways Audrey Parker blew into his life like a storm, pummeled his world, shook it up and left it looking different, clean and new. But she hasn’t blown away. She’s fought tooth and nail to stay and here she is. Nathan bumps her shoulder, and she turns storm-blue eyes on him, a laugh and a question in them. He just smiles, because what can he say? He doesn’t have the words to explain his thoughts. She bumps him back, solid and real. Nathan sucks in a deep breath and lets it out slowly through his nose, a little overwhelmed but in a good way.

Duke drops himself down on Nathan’s free side. Nathan didn’t hear him coming up over the roar of the waves, but he doesn’t have to look to be able to tell. Another miracle he was sure he’d never get. He did, though; he can feel the soft fibers of Duke’s stripy surfer sweater pressed against his arm and beneath that the warm solid line of Duke’s torso. He’s warm against Nathan’s goose bumps and Nathan leans into him. If Audrey is the storm then Duke is his anchor, the thing that keeps him safe, keeps him from blowing away. Nathan is amused by the thought, how aggravated Duke would be to be thought of that way. It’s true though; Duke keeps him tied to who he is. As long as Nathan has Duke, he can be sure he won’t lose himself, lose the person he is beneath all the layers of cop and duty and responsibility.

“When the lightning starts, we’re leaving,” Duke warns.

Nathan chuckles, low and warm. He hears the concern in Duke’s words now, instead of bossiness or thinking he knows better than Nathan. Nathan’s more than a little ashamed of how long he thought that of Duke.

Nathan opens his eyes again, seeing the rain now, a grey curtain sweeping the horizon closer and closer to them. The air is cool and clean, tasting of salt and scented with petrichor. The rain comes down, pattering across the sand, almost drowning out the crash of the waves in the sudden noise. It drums on the umbrella and the top of Nathan’s head, big, wet drops that slide down his nose and drip off his chin. It’s cold but in a good way-- it makes Nathan feel awake, alive. He turns his face up to the clouds and lets the water slide through his hair and patter across his cheeks.

He gets to his feet and turns a slow circle--soaking it all in, the wind and the rain and the sand blowing against his bare legs. Nathan can feel his entire body, from the top of his head down to his sand caked toes: his t shirt is plastered to his chest, making him aware of each and every breath he takes as the material moves with him. His trunks swish against his thighs as he turns making that funny noise only nylon makes.

When he finishes his rotation, Duke and Audrey are on their feet as well. Parker’s hair is plastered to her head, Duke’s shoulders are up around his ears, but they’re there because he is. Nathan can feel the smile stealing across his face, slow and pleased. They really love him. It’s kind of amazing.

Nathan grabs Audrey around the waist, making her shriek in surprise, spinning her in the wind and rain like he had in the sunshine and waves that morning, joy once again bubbling in his chest like Parker’s laughter bubbles over her lips. She’s so warm even in this pouring rain. Her hands clutch his arms as they swing, her body curved neatly, full of trust, into his. Nathan spins them right into Duke, whose arms go around them automatically, but their momentum is too much and they all three go tumbling to the sand in a mix of elbows and laughter. Nathan plants a sandy kiss on Duke’s laughing mouth, feeling the grit of the sand and the rasp of Duke’s goatee.

Thunder booms sudden and shocking, and Nathan jumps in the kiss, knocking teeth with Duke. He tastes the copper of a split lip, almost stronger than he feels the sting. Duke gasps and pulls away and nothing happens. Duke wipes the blood off his own mouth. It goes nowhere, just sits on his thumb, doesn’t get absorbed, doesn’t send him into a silver-eyed rampage. Nathan grins at him, and he knows it’s a red grin but he can’t help it.

“What are you looking at?” Duke challenges, but there’s a grin tugging at his lips too.

“Idiots who are going to get struck by lightning,” Parker answers for him, already on her feet again; her smile is fond again though and she holds out her hands to them.

====

 _It’s a good thing the Bronco has leather seats_ , Audrey thinks as they squelch their way inside. The rain has tapered off into a solid drizzle as they pull out of the parking lot. Lights are on in the houses they pass, copper and gold fighting back the blue gloom of the storm. It makes her smile when Nathan is the one to flick on the heater because they’re all still shivering despite the dry towels. She huddles into Duke’s side, blatantly stealing as much of his heat as she can. He’s shed his sweater in favor of the dry towel and now the water dripping from her hair’s giving him goose bumps but he doesn’t push her away. Instead, he wraps his towel snugly around them both and reaches out to chafe warmth into Nathan’s arm as he drives. Nathan gives him a soft glance before focusing on the road again.

Once they get inside it’s hot showers and hot coffee spiked with Baileys. The rain keeps coming down. Blue shadows form pools where the lamplight doesn’t reach. The drum of the rain is a steady soothing sound on the roof. Duke makes chowder while Audrey sneaks in some paperwork and Nathan retreats to his secret laboratory. He wasn’t kidding when he said he only decoupages in private. He makes things in there, has recently been trying his hand at woodworking (wasn’t a good idea to give the man who couldn’t feel his hands a jigsaw before) so the warm smell of sanded wood filters under the door every now and then. He’s yet to show them any kind of product, but they respect his privacy even if it’s killing Audrey that she doesn’t know what he’s making.

They eat dinner on the couch with Audrey’s socked feet tucked under Duke’s warm thigh and her shoulders propped against Nathan’s. Audrey feels herself drooping, it’s been a long day. Even the soup isn’t enough to perk her up. Lightning still flashes occasionally, electric blue filling the room followed by the rumble of thunder. Audrey finds herself shivering, like she can’t get warm.

“You probably overdid it with the sun today,” Duke sympathizes.

“See. I knew this relaxation thing was overrated,” Audrey chatters.

Nathan pulls the throw off the back of the couch for her, it’s cobalt blue and soft as kittens and invariably goes to Nathan when they’re cuddling on the couch, so Audrey appreciates the gesture.

The boys help her get bundled and little by little Audrey uncurls, as the warmth from the soup and the blanket and her guys seeps into her bones. She stretches out her legs across Duke’s lap, while Nathan’s arm comes up to hold her close. Duke’s hair is still damp and it swings as he gestures to make his point to Nathan. Nathan’s hand is running comforting strokes up and down her arm.

“Sure you don’t wanna go to bed?” Duke asks, rubbing her leg through the blanket.

Audrey shakes her head because talking is too much effort, but bed is far and it’d be lonely.

She tries to keep up with the conversation; it’s not even nine o’clock, it’d be ridiculous to go to bed now. They’re talking about Bill coaching the Sea Dogs though, and Audrey has learned very little about baseball. Certainly not enough to follow their conversation. Her eyelids droop closed and then spring open again at the next roll of thunder.

“It’s okay…” Duke soothes, rubbing her ankle.

Audrey slips right back into sleep in a moment and doesn’t stir when the boys break off their conversation to chuckle quietly over how tired she is. She doesn't even feel it when Nathan carries her to their bed.

====

She wakes with a start in the pitch blackness of Nathan’s bedroom. She stumbles out of bed before her brain has managed to catch up, gnawing dread in her gut. Her body is so tired, all she wants is to sleep. She can’t though. Haven is depending on her. Duke is depending on her! She shuffles to the kitchen on feet that don’t seem to want to cooperate very well. She’s got her keys off the hook and in her hand, when Nathan’s voice stops her.

“Where you going, Parker?” he asks, voice soft and curious, unhurried.

“The station, Nathan!” She exclaims. How could he even ask that? She turns to find him sitting at the table. What is wrong with him? How can he be so calm?

“Come on! We have to go! We have to figure out the aether core to save Duke.” she insists, words coming out automatic, vehement, as she wakes herself up with each one.

No. that’s wrong.

She blinks dumbly at Nathan for a long moment, trying to work out what’s wrong.

“Audrey?” it’s Duke’s voice. She finds him closing the fridge door just behind Nathan’s shoulder. His hair is wrong-- it isn’t slicked back with gel, but hangs all around his face in soft curls. His eyes are wrong --they aren’t aether black, but brown and steady, so full of concern. That’s when Audrey wakes up properly because this is not the Duke she’s trying to save. This is the Duke they’ve already rescued, the one who saved them.

“Duke?” she asks, voice cracking

“Yeah, Audrey, it’s me,” he says stepping around Nathan, approaching her with his palms up like she’s some wild animal he’s worried about startling.

Audrey lets out a choked half-laugh, half-sob and flings herself into his arms, clinging with force. Duke’s arms are warm and steady around her, they hold her so carefully, it makes her cry even harder. All that strength in him, all that terrible strength when he was Troubled and he is always so gentle with her.

But the Troubles are over and Duke is saved. The Troubles are over and Nathan can feel. The Troubles are over and Audrey can afford to fall into a sleep so deep she wakes and has no idea what’s going on. Nathan strokes a hand down her back, all his concern radiating through his fingers, and Audrey knows she has to say something.

“I forgot,” Audrey chokes out the explanation. “I woke up and thought I’d slept through the alarm and…” she trails off, feeling ridiculous.

Duke, however, has always had a fairly good grasp of the ridiculous and he starts laughing and then Nathan and Audrey are laughing. Audrey flails out an arm towards Nathan, and Duke draws him into their embrace. Nathan’s shirt is old and soft, his body so familiar to her even through the layers between. Duke’s arms wrap around them both, holding on instead of merely letting himself be held. Audrey closes her eyes and holds on to these men, her partner, her touchstone. She feels the tightness in her chest dissolve, she can breathe again.

They leave their poker game and take her to bed. It’s only 1 a.m. There’s still practically the whole night to sleep. They fit themselves around her, winding close as they can. She should probably feel overwhelmed by the bulk of them, but instead she just feels safe. Duke’s lips brush the top of her spine, Nathan tucks Audrey’s head snugly beneath his chin. They are probably exchanging worried glances where she can’t see them, but she’s okay. She’s fine.

In the morning when she wakes, the room is full of sunshine; dust motes sparkle suspended in the beams. Audrey manages to slide her way into a sitting position and scrubs her hands over her face. Duke and Nathan’s bodies are limned in gold, highlighting the spikes of Nathan’s porcupine bedhead where his face is mostly buried in the pillows, tracing the clean lines of Duke’s back--those terrible aether hand prints are gone. Nathan and Duke sleep soundly, contentment in the lines of their faces. Nathan’s fingers wrapped around Duke’s bicep, Duke’s fingers curved around Nathan’s hip.

She takes a deep breath, exhales long and slow.

The Troubles are over.

**Author's Note:**

> Got a fav part? Why not tell me about it? :)
> 
> Pics were stolen shamelessly many moons ago from various instagram/twitters (mostly Balfour's) and the frames are from [Here](http://anushka04.deviantart.com/art/Hanging-Polaroids-331325297)


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